


Harrowing Adventures

by FeathersandFreckles



Series: Corgi 'Verse [2]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Corgis, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 19:12:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1399294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeathersandFreckles/pseuds/FeathersandFreckles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik may be the furthest thing from a member of the corgi fan club, but he has a weakness for Charles. If spending a day off with him means going to the dog park, then so be it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Harrowing Adventures

**Author's Note:**

> I was asked for more corgi fic and I'm utterly incapable of denying this 'verse.

image by [Ellensama](http://ellensama.tumblr.com/).

The dog park was not somewhere unfamiliar to Erik. Charles had invited him along a number of times, and he’d accepted more than once. When their owner was around, the dogs were considerably less trying. In most cases he didn’t even regret the experience.

He and Charles typically spent their stay idling at one of the picnic tables in the back corner of the fenced off park. When strange mutts wandered near to sniff around, Erik easily ignored them. In the scheme of things, the amount of time Charles spent distracted by his need to coo at and stroke every canine within arm’s reach was negligible.

Majority of their hours spent together there were actually filled with conversation or comfortable silence spent holding hands or draping arms around each other. When Charles invited him once more one Sunday morning, Erik expected much of the same.

However, the experience was far from blissful. The walk there lulled him into a false sense of security that was broken the instant they walked through the gate of the dog park. Several owners lingered around it, seeming unconcerned by Charles and Erik as they stepped inside.

That typically meant at least a few of their dogs were hovering nearby, waiting for attention. One such dog was a large droopy-looking thing on stilts that bounded right up, wagging its ropey tail madly and shoving its head right between Erik’s legs.

It was alarming and foreign, an action both of Charles’ weasels were incapable of due to their lacking stature. Everything about it was entirely unpleasant and Erik grabbed the behemoth’s gigantic face between his hands as he tried to simultaneously clamp his legs together and shove it away with one knee. “No,” he tried to admonish it, apparently without any effect.

The thing was some sort of unmovable force, and Erik took a frantic step backwards as it tried to cram its head closer.

Charles laughed where he was stooped beside Erik, in the middle of unclipping the second bat-eared menace. The moment it was gone, bolting off to join the first, he was reaching over to end the assault on his boyfriend. With some muscle, Charles was able to haul the dog backwards a few steps.

Erik narrowed his stance as much as possible and moved to place Charles between himself and the crotch-sniffing monster before the other man was even done making friendly conversation with his attacker.

Feeling violated and completely out of his comfort zone, Erik was not receptive in the slightest when the dog’s owner casually strolled up to them and made the world’s weakest excuse for an apology. It made him bitter when Charles softened his glare by chuckling and telling the woman that it was ‘quite all right’. Hardly, Erik thought.

Torn between storming off, dragging Charles with him, and standing his ground to give the woman the most disapproving glare he could manage, Erik just stood there silently. While his boyfriend conversed with this hellhound’s owner in a way that could be misconstrued as flirting.

“Sweetheart,” Erik ground out, “I think the dogs are getting into trouble.” It was a complete and utter lie, but it was distracting enough for the other man. Charles excused himself from the woman and her spider-legged science experiment in order to begin scanning the park for his own dogs.

With the opening, Erik spun on his heel and began to head in the direction of the picnic tables. He could tell the instant Charles realized his deception, because he could hear the other man jogging to catch up.

The escalated speed of his movements seemed to act as a honing mechanism for several nearby ankle-biters, because they were being charged before Charles could even begin to berate him.

They snapped and nipping at Charles’ heels, which meant that they were all nearing at the same rate. It took every ounce of Erik’s self control not to kick out at the bug-eyed one that snarled as it sunk its tiny serrated fangs into the leg of his pants.

Even as he shook his leg out and kept walking, it hung tight. Charles seemed completely oblivious; more focused on attempting not to crush any of the three hideously groomed cockroaches crowding him.

“Knock it off,” he demanded of the dog as he leaned over to bat it away. That only served to make it angrier, and it lunged at his hands. Erik jerked back and upright abruptly. If he’d only been slightly slower, it would have snagged his fingers.

He cursed under his breath in German as he faked a threatening advance towards the dog and watched it cower away, all while yapping. It, thankfully, did not dare latch onto his pant-legs again, and Charles’ approach seemed to deter it from even following him towards the table.

By the time he sat down, Charles managed to shoo the rest, and they dispersed like knats.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Charles said the moment he sat down beside Erik on the bench. The older man merely cocked an eyebrow and shifted his arm behind his boyfriend so he could rest it along the edge of the table.

“You can’t?”

Charles leaned back, the curve of his shoulder settling against Erik’s own as he conceded, “I can. But I’m still disappointed.”

If it hadn’t been such pointless effort, Erik may have shrugged it off. Instead he settled for glaring out at the dogs zipping around the dog park. He should have known better than to think that everything would turn out fine during an adventure to the dog park.

The combination of his low tolerance for animals, and his even lower tolerance for situations that involve strange animals shoving their faces where they should not be, placed the entire ordeal high on his list of worst experiences ever.

The strain of it was only alleviated when Charles settled into his side despite his openly declared exasperation. He said nothing as he stared out over the park, watching the brown and white dots that were his specific be-fanged earthworms.

Erik knew with perfect clarity how ridiculous they looked, running full-speed. He’d seen it hundreds of times with his own two eyes, the way they defied every law of physics. Graceless snub-legged gazelles that leapt more than sprinted, using their hind ends as rudders. There was no reason for him - or even Charles - to watch.

But as he looked over, the other man was grinning like he’d never seen a couple of fuzzy slugs bolting about in his life. Like he didn’t actually spend every moment of his life with them. Charles was endlessly amused by his own disappointing excuses for companions, but Erik couldn’t begrudge him that if it meant he would always be inspired to give that eye-crinkling smile.

He leaned in to press a chaste kiss to Charles’ temple, resigning himself to an hour of gazing uselessly at Charles’ profile. And fending off any unwanted advances made by overtly friendly mongrels. All things considered, it wasn’t the worst way could spend his Sunday.

Even when the pudgy slinkies approached toting a slobbery, mangled tennis ball and dropped it directly onto his boots. Even when he had to throw it ten times before they would leave him alone without barking up a storm.

Especially when Charles laughed, bright and warm like the first day of sunlight after the longest snow storm of the season, as he smeared the viscous slobber across the edge of the bench with a grunt of disgust.


End file.
